Off the Ranch - The Idaho Rancher's Wife

Little Lemhi, Idaho- My First Happily Ever After

December 21, 2014 by Allison

Lemhi, Idaho will always have a special place in my heart. Mostly the ranch that my brother worked on. Why? Good question… I’ll tell you.

This is the place I met my cowboy.

I always said I would marry a cowboy but then when I went to college, there were no cowboys around. I was interested in the nursing program at BYU- a school where there is nothing remotely close to an animal science or ag business programs. See.. ya… no cowboys. It was a little much for this country girl so I would head up to my brother’s to visit, ride my horse, and get out of the city. It so happened that The Rancher thought that Lemhi would be a great place to do an internship and took a semester there. We met. We played. We worked. We checked cows until midnight. I though nothing would come from it because he didn’t even come say by as I left that first weekend I met him. That was until I got a call from my sister in law warning me that The Rancher had asked my brother for my phone number! Too scared to ask me, but not too scared to ask his boss for his sisters number… Boys…

So we romanced and fell in love and got married. Then we moved to the ranch! We worked on the ranch the first 8 months before we went back to school. It was like a long honey moon- we just worked and played with practically no one else around (have you heard of Lemhi? No? That’s because its suuuuper small. LOVE IT!).

Now when we go to visit I always think of those great few years where The Rancher and I got our start. In some ways it will always be home because that it where we had our first home. I love to take time to drive around the valley and the ranch to just take it all in. This was the beginning of my happily ever after!

Cousins make the best of friends! How many boys does it take to open a gate?…

Crazy Days of Preg Checking

October 29, 2014 by Allison

Anyone can imagine that three days of preg checking 1514 cows would be kinda crazy. This year certainly didn’t disappoint, that’s for sure! But even as crazy as it gets, it is such a fun weekend. Getting this crew of Curlew cowboys together always means a good time. They can’t go more than just a few minutes without giving somebody a hard time about something- teasing them with the hot shot, giving some sage marital advice, or telling them to pick up the slack. They try to share WAY too much candy to my kids but only because they love them. My favorite cowboy always searches out The Ranch Princess to say hello and give her a kiss. They are a hard working bunch, never forgetting that they have a job to do but never letting the work stop them from keeping things fun.

We preg check these cows out to Black Pine- WAY out on the desert in the middle of nowhere on some corrals built there permanently for days like these. Keeping the cows in the corrals for the long three days means that they get hot and raunchy and make any tough cowboy ready to crawl up the fence. In fact we had a few intense moments that will go down in the books.

Let me set the stage…

Imagine, if you will, some old (but well built) corrals- big enough to hold 500 cows. There are two or three cowboys on horses pushing cows through to the back of the ally. There is a guy or two at the ally keeping the ally full of cows and running the back gate to keep from losing any. The ally is lined with a few guys on each side with hot shots ready to zap (responsibly, I promise) any cow into gear. (And when they’re not busy getting the cows, they pretend to shock each other… or steal their chair or something else to give some grief.)

Staying with me? Good- there’s more!

At the chute we have the vet up to his shoulder in cow- obviously… he’s like the man of the hour. There is also a man running the chute, one marking the cows with hair bleach according to their gestation, and one replacing any tags that have been lost over the last year. Next to the chute is a flatbed truck where we have ranchers taking numbers, doing shots, taking pictures (actually, that’s just me!) and my awesome kids. When the cows are done being tested, they are sorted one of three ways- to go home now, to go to Locomotive, or to come home in a week. What makes our sorting work despite the fact that there are no fences is the row of trucks and trailers that make a big ally to the field for the Locomotive cows.

Are you thoroughly confused?

That’s ok. Just understand lots of cowboys and lots of cows. Now let me take you to the afternoon of day two. Work is going along nicely, nothing out of the ordinary. That means we’ve had some great lunch, the chute has been cleaned out of a good sox inches of poop and at least one cow has attempted to jump over the fence. I make the kids play close to the truck in the event some crazy manages to get over- something that really hasn’t happened in a while. Until this day. I’m not sure if the girl was nervous about her time in the chute or just ready to be free (I’m going with the latter) but whatever her reason, she was ready to get out.

I was standing next to the flatbed, looking over the shoulder of my rancher’s wife double (we share the exact same name!) as she was teaching me about her record keeping program when all of the sudden we hear, “She’s coming over! She’s coming over!” And then “Get the kids!” I don’t even remember actually seeing the cow as she started teetering over ally just behind the chute, but I understood enough that we needed to move- FAST! I swung The Rancher’s Sidekick up on to the truck quickly, but just as fast I realized there wasn’t enough time to get The Ranch Princess and climb up behind everyone else. There wasn’t really even enough time to grab my girl and run. I scooped up my baby and pressed up to the truck, turning her out of the way as best I could. Just as we got there, one of those tough cowboys came to stand between us and that crazy, ornery cow. He figured better a guy with a hot shot than a cowgirl with a kid if there were to be any type of face off.

Are you on the edge of your seat? Not really, I’m sure, but for us in the moment it was slightly intense because we were standing exactly in front of that cow and could surely have taken the brunt of her nasty attitude. However… she went a different way. We must have made enough commotion or looked like such a crazy site that in her tantrum she wasn’t willing to put up with us. She just kicked up her heels and took off for the desert (a good place for her for the next five months).

Oh, the crazy days of preg checking. We love them and are happy to be done with them for the year. The cows are bred up, pregged up, and turned out for the winter. We’re all alive and well and have decided to put up a few more poles on the ally next year!

A Deer Hunt up Quaken Asp

October 16, 2014 by Allison

Our quiet little valley has suddenly come alive this last week. Our quaint little roads have become a bustling highway for hunters. The deer hunting season is open and everyone has come to try and pull a big one out of our mountains. We see hunters of all kinds- on horse back, hauling ATVs, old ones. young ones, smart ones, and … ones that think that they are too cool for orange. If you don’t wear orange, you deserve to be shot. Ok, I didn’t say that, but really, why would you NOT be smart and wear something so the other hunter wouldn’t shoot at you?!

Opening morning The Rancher and I decided to join the hunting crowd and head up to our private property in the heart of those mountains. I guess we went up for two reasons- 1, to see if we couldn’t find something big and 2, to keep everyone else off of our property. And I guess a fun morning date is a good third reason for going!

We get a lot of mixed reactions when we post “No Hunting” on our private property. With so many hunters coming in (we can usually count about 15- 20 opening morning!) we try to give the deer a little bit of refuge on our property. Over the last ten years when the hunt opened up from a draw, the area has really picked through and it seems that only the young bucks are all that’s left. So we post our few acres and hope that people will respect our wishes and just move on. There is enough land and game around that it isn’t worth their fight. At least that is what I am going to believe that they are saying, as we haven’t had a problem yet.

On our hunt this year, we didn’t see much at all. Day one there was one little two point that popped up with a few doe… and that was it. We sat for a while and watched them before moving on… kinda fun. On day two we saw the same little buck, but this time in distress- he was being chased by a coyote! Poor bugger to have two different kind of hunters after him that day!

Even though we didn’t see much game, it has still been a fun deer hunt. I definitely deserve the award for the most “shots” taken, although mine are fired from my trusty Nikon instead of The Rancher’s rifle. The morning sunrises were beautliful, the fall leaves were colorful, and the company was great!

Can you find the little deer hiding in this photo?

Hometown Buck-a-Rama

September 26, 2014 by Allison

If I had known all of the crazy things that September would bring I don’t know that I would have believed it. My calendar at the end of the month looks nothing like what I had in mind at the beginning of the month. But that’s ok… In the midst of all the craziness I had some awesome family time, a fun trip to Montana with my sister (she lives in New York… like, the polar opposite of my world. Crazy that two sisters that are best friends could live completely different lives… LOVE IT!!) and a chance to go back to my roots.

The weekend that I was home to Montana just happened to be the weekend that the American Legion was holding an event to raise money for the fair grounds. Funny that until now I hadn’t realized who was responsible for the fairgrounds there. Where is the fair board, you ask? There isn’t one. Our county doesn’t actually hold a county fair. Instead they team up with a couple neighboring counties to put on a Tri-County fair in Deer Lodge. Looky there… Learned something new, didn’t ya!

So no fair board, no money from the county, and therefore in need of some creative fundraising.

The highlight of the day was a rough stock buck-out featuring the bulls of a local rough stock contractors, Rod and Bonnie Conat and Steven Graveley. They may not be PBR material just yet but that very well may be where they are heading. Some of these bulls were young and inexperienced, but they certainly have potential. But that doesn’t mean that there weren’t any old seasoned bulls that knew how to put on a show. I was thoroughly entertained!

I did have one small complaint, and you will see it here in a minute. They had hauled in a bunch of panels to make a much smaller ring to buck in. Smart, right? They won’t have to chase bulls all day to move on to the next one. But they forgot to think of the lady sitting in the stands with two tired kids crawling on her lap while she tried to take pictures. So that means that in between you and the action will be some panels and what not. Just pretend its not there…

Regardless of how the panels may or may not have ruined the ambiance of the pictures, it was still a fun day for a rodeo!

Love me a Little Rodeo

August 27, 2014 by Allison

Naturally, I love rodeos. Everything about them. I love the crazy rough stock (occaisionally I cheer for them instead of the cowboy) and I love to see a good ride. I love fast roping, especially now that I have a new appreciation for the art since I started. I even love the crazy rodeo clowns and their terrible, intermittent jokes. And as terrible as it is, I love watching the bull fighters run for their lives!

There is just something about the energy in the air at a rodeo that makes me smile.

I guess there is one thing that I don’t love… That’s the terrible lighting at a night rodeo. I just never manage to get good pictures by the end of the show. Especially when I don’t have all of the equipment I would love to have or I don’t have close up access (but I’m really ok not being in the arena with those crazy critters!).

Never the less, I do have some fun, great photos from the IMPRA Rodeo when it came to town!

Ready?!

Bringing the Party Home- Team Branding in Malad

August 20, 2014 by Allison

Team branding. By this time of the summer we are counting down how many are left. If the heifers could count, I’m pretty sure that they, too, would be on the count down. The team branding for our fair has to be one of the favorites for me.

Part of it is because we don’t have to travel a long ways. Phew… For once the stock contractor doesn’t out drive the cowboys. But the best part that since it is local we see so many of our great friends and neighbors! Normally at the end I am just praying for these things to get over because we are all tired, cranky, bored, and someone has most likely gotten hurt. But not in Malad. I’m so stinking busy doing fair board stuff, helping with the heifers, taking pictures, visiting with friends and watching my own kids. Scratch that last one… with so many friends around, everyone else is playing with my babies that it seems like I hardly see them!

Prepare yourselves for a lot of pictures. Not all are that fantastic… I blame the light and the timing. If only I could be in charge of the timing of this shin-dig… But alas, I’m not. So deal with it. I would rather share these photos that might not be my best than not show them at all! 🙂

Click “Read more” for the other pictures…

A Day at the Races

August 18, 2014 by Allison

This last week was kinda a big deal for me. It was fair week. Normally I only hang out at the fair to support the kids and watch the rodeos. I have no babies doing projects yet and even though I enter some pictures, nothing is really high stakes. Being on the fair board this year meant that fair was a whole new ball game this year. And I am so happy to report that not only did we survive it but we rocked it! I don’t think that I had a single melt down and The Rancher still loves me. Sure I heard a few grumbles of the incompetency of the fair board and I did have one lady take a go at me… But we are still in one piece and after a few days of napping I think I’m ready to go again!

We always start the Oneida County Fair with the horse races. I wasn’t able to go to the first weekend of races because we were too busy playing wedding with The Buckaroo. (Ps, anybody want to hear about that? Good, because you will… later…). The next weekend I was sure to make it to the track. Especially since I have never EVER been to a race. It would be a good idea to know what we are talking about when we get the “races” part of the agenda.

By the time the races were done I had a few things figured out, like only cut through the beer gallery if you aren’t in a hurry. Nothing crazy happened this year (last year the man in the water truck got a great show from the ladies…) but there are always funny comments or people making a fool of themselves.

Most of the jockeys were Mexican and I would have given anything for a Spanish/English dictionary (or just The Rancher available for translation at all times!) to hear what their little wives were telling them. I knew just enough to know when they were saying they were so proud or the times when they were telling them to man up. But you might not need any translating for that…

I know for next year that if you want a good spot to watch and take pictures you better park your can for the duration. There’s no calling “place-back” or “saved-spot”. To that end I don’t have tons of pictures. I used my charm to peek my camera through the track gate just after the finish line to get a few fun shots. But even then there were some crazy ladies hovering over me that got a little too close for this girl’s comfort!

These horse are incredible and crazy at the same time. They are so fast and strong and wound up SO TIGHT! The race is only a quarter of the track, but we need the rest of it to get the darn things stopped. I like to watch them, but I don’t want to take them home! Hmmm, that’s what I say about other people’s kids…

Before I let you go (because you are totally enthralled with my awesome whit, right?) I have one more funny to share. As a member of the fair board I helped present the winners with a horse blanket in the winner’s circle and smile for a picture. By the last race I had learned that I just hold out the blanket and the families with the trainer, jockey, and owner quick jump in and hold it. As I went to step back this man grabbed me around the waist, “Oh no, pretty lady! You stay her by me!” Ok man, I’ll stand here. I’ll flatter you for the sake of the picture and maybe it will keep you quiet.

But oh boy he kept going, “You want a beer?” “No, I’m good” “Soda? Water? I buy for you pretty girl!” I should have asked if it was ok to invite my husband… Maybe then he would have let go for the picture. Lets just say that he had a great time in the beer gardens and was having an even better time that they had just won! Then there was something about showing the picture to his girlfriend of him by a pretty blonde… And that he was sure we would have to ask for forgiveness. All I could think was, “Take the darn picture already- his hands are sweaty!” What a great way to initiate The Rancher’s Wife to a day at the races!

2014 Stone Rodeo

August 6, 2014 by Allison

Raise your hand if you have heard of the Stone rodeo. Ok, don’t really. Someone is going to think you are crazy… but good for you if you have! If you haven’t, now you are!

The Stone rodeo, practically a Holy Day in this area. Stone, Idaho is the tiny gathering of homes and ranches near Snowville, Utah and good ol’ Holbrook. The community is so small that there isn’t a single church, bar, post office, or gas station. But any good town full of cowboys will have some rodeo grounds! But don’t let the small town setting make you think that this isn’t a quality rodeo. Or the fact that the square arena is closer to an egg shaped! Amateur rodeo or not, they ride hard, rope hard, and sometimes fall hard!

These rodeo grounds are used just the two nights of the Stone rodeo. Now days the bleachers are all permanent, but back in the day they had to haul in seating. Except for those that bring their own, and I don’t mean a camp or lawn chair. Days before the rodeo, the arena is lined with pick-ups reserving their spot and getting them front row seats!

The events at the rodeo are entertaining for everyone to watch or participate. We have roping for all the hometown cowboys, rough stock for the crazies and dreamers (aka The Buckaroo), milk calves for the kids, and wild horse riding for the brave (or drunk…)! Every year I can guarantee two nights of hand-clapping-side-ache-laughing-country-good-time-fun!

Team Branding at Bancroft

July 25, 2014 by Allison

Our weekends have been busy- like something every weekend. Family reunions, parties, and of course, team brandings. One of The Rancher’s favorite team brandings is at small town Bancroft, Idaho.

Being in such a remote area with nothing around it but farms and ranches, you can see why he likes it. Only the real cowboys come out, and even though it’s competitive roping, those cowboys make it a good time.

I might have mentioned before that I’m working in my roping. I want to be a REAL cowgirl, so I figure I better get this roping thing down. The Rancher thought that this would be a great time to give it a try. “I’ll put her right in your loop, babe. It’ll be easy!” Ya… I said no… I got a little stage fright. I better practice up a little more before I put some money down. And if your gonna lose (which I most likely would) you better look good doing it, and I’m pretty sure I would have just looked like a fool! Turns out it was a good choice to not rope because a big ol’ storm came through with some crazy wind. I could just see me roping myself with that kind of wind…

But next year… I’ll get all practiced up and next year I’ll do it!

Water Slides Rancher Style

July 20, 2014 by Allison

Over the 4^th of July weekend, my family had a reunion out on the ranch. And let’s be honest, what better place is there?! We shot guns, had a massive water fight, visited the ranch animals (and some milked a cow for this first time!) and enjoyed Malad’s 4^th of July parade and firework show.

But the most fun we had was at the water slide… park… thing. This isn’t your typical water slide. No twisting slides splashing you into the pool. No slides that dump you straight down and give you an atomic wedgy. Oh no, these are much cooler!

When you drive up there you might be a little unimpressed. In the midst of the hay fields is a nice size hill with two; massive tarps running the length of the hill. At the top of each tarp is a small hose running water down. Something so simple couldn’t be that amazing, right? Man, this is the most fantastic thing ever! You can go down the slide on your knee/bum/tummy or these have a plethora of inner tubes (my personal favorite!). You start sliding down the hill, pick up some speed, and get spinning along the way.

About half way through we had the bright idea to do a train everybody holding onto each other’s tubes so that we all went down together. We must have had 5 or 6 tubes loaded up with kids, parents and even grandpa! The first time we went down was the most memorable. My brother and I were the caboose to our little train. We grabbed onto the tube in front of us. Actually to be more specific, we grabbed onto riders of the tube in front of us- my other brother and my 7 year old niece. In retrospect, my niece wasn’t the best to hold on to. Grandpa was at the front, the steam engine you could say. Once he started down, the rest of the train followed… except us. The tube in front of us took off and instead of my niece pulling us along, we just pulled her off! It was just like in the movies where the tube was ripped right out from under her and she was left sitting! We laughed and laughed as we jumped on to follow the train.

Never doubt a farmer and his ingenious ideas. You might think that a simple tarp down a few hills in the middle of a few fields is lame… and you would be wrong!